89,867 research outputs found
On the reliability of polarization estimation using Rotation Measure Synthesis
We benchmark the reliability of the Rotation Measure (RM) synthesis algorithm
using the 1005 Centaurus A field sources of Feain et al. (2009). The RM
synthesis solutions are compared with estimates of the polarization parameters
using traditional methods. This analysis provides verification of the
reliability of RM synthesis estimates. We show that estimates of the
polarization parameters can be made at lower S/N if the range of RMs is
bounded, but reliable estimates of individual sources with unusual RMs require
unconstrainted solutions and higher S/N.
We derive from first principles the statistical properties of the
polarization amplitude associated with RM synthesis in the presence of noise.
The amplitude distribution depends explicitly on the amplitude of the
underlying (intrinsic) polarization signal. Hence it is necessary to model the
underlying polarization signal distribution in order to estimate the
reliability and errors in polarization parameter estimates. We introduce a
Bayesian method to derive the distribution of intrinsic amplitudes based on the
distribution of measured amplitudes.
The theoretically-derived distribution is compared with the empirical data to
provide quantitative estimates of the probability that an RM synthesis solution
is correct as a function of S/N. We provide quantitative estimates of the
probability that any given RM synthesis solution is correct as a function of
measured polarized amplitude and the intrinsic polarization amplitude compared
to the noise.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Analytic Detection Thresholds for Measurements of Linearly Polarized Intensity Using Rotation Measure Synthesis
A fully analytic statistical formalism does not yet exist to describe
radio-wavelength measurements of linearly polarized intensity that are produced
using rotation measure synthesis. In this work we extend the analytic formalism
for standard linear polarization, namely that describing measurements of the
quadrature sum of Stokes Q and U intensities, to the rotation measure synthesis
environment. We derive the probability density function and expectation value
for Faraday-space polarization measurements for both the case where true
underlying polarized emission is present within unresolved Faraday components,
and for the limiting case where no such emission is present. We then derive
relationships to quantify the statistical significance of linear polarization
measurements in terms of standard Gaussian statistics. The formalism developed
in this work will be useful for setting signal-to-noise ratio detection
thresholds for measurements of linear polarization, for the analysis of
polarized sources potentially exhibiting multiple Faraday components, and for
the development of polarization debiasing schemes.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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A tutorial on cue combination and Signal Detection Theory: Using changes in sensitivity to evaluate how observers integrate sensory information
Many sensory inputs contain multiple sources of information (‘cues’), such as two sounds of different frequencies, or a voice heard in unison with moving lips. Often, each cue provides a separate estimate of the same physical attribute, such as the size or location of an object. An ideal observer can exploit such redundant sensory information to improve the accuracy of their perceptual judgments. For example, if each cue is modeled as an independent, Gaussian, random variable, then combining Ncues should provide up to a √N improvement in detection/discrimination sensitivity. Alternatively, a less efficient observer may base their decision on only a subset of the available information, and so gain little or no benefit from having access to multiple sources of information. Here we use Signal Detection Theory to formulate and compare various models of cue-combination, many of which are commonly used to explain empirical data. We alert the reader to the key assumptions inherent in each model, and provide formulas for deriving quantitative predictions. Code is also provided for simulating each model, allowing expected levels of measurement error to be quantified. Based on these results, it is shown that predicted sensitivity often differs surprisingly little between qualitatively distinct models of combination. This means that sensitivity alone is not sufficient for understanding decision efficiency, and the implications of this are discussed
User-profile-based analytics for detecting cloud security breaches
While the growth of cloud-based technologies has benefited the society tremendously, it has also increased the surface area for cyber attacks. Given that cloud services are prevalent today, it is critical to devise systems that detect intrusions. One form of security breach in the cloud is when cyber-criminals compromise Virtual Machines (VMs) of unwitting users and, then, utilize user resources to run time-consuming, malicious, or illegal applications for their own benefit. This work proposes a method to detect unusual resource usage trends and alert the user and the administrator in real time. We experiment with three categories of methods: simple statistical techniques, unsupervised classification, and regression. So far, our approach successfully detects anomalous resource usage when experimenting with typical trends synthesized from published real-world web server logs and cluster traces. We observe the best results with unsupervised classification, which gives an average F1-score of 0.83 for web server logs and 0.95 for the cluster traces
The Arecibo Dual-Beam Survey: The HI Mass Function of Galaxies
We use the HI-selected galaxy sample from the Arecibo Dual-Beam Survey
(Rosenberg & Schneider 2000) to determine the shape of the HI mass function of
galaxies in the local universe using both the step-wise maximum likelihood and
the 1/V_tot methods. Our survey region spanned all 24 hours of right ascension
at selected declinations between 8 and 29 degrees covering ~430 deg^2 of sky in
the main beam. The survey is not as deep as some previous Arecibo surveys, but
it has a larger total search volume and samples a much larger area of the sky.
We conducted extensive tests on all aspects of the galaxy detection process,
allowing us to empirically correct for our sensitivity limits, unlike the
previous surveys. The mass function for the entire sample is quite steep, with
a power-law slope of \alpha ~ -1.5. We find indications that the slope of the
HI mass function is flatter near the Virgo cluster, suggesting that
evolutionary effects in high density environments may alter the shape of the HI
mass function. These evolutionary effects may help to explain differences in
the HI mass function derived by different groups. We are sensitive to the most
massive sources (log M > 5x10^10 M\solar) over most of the declination range,
\~1 sr, and do not detect any massive low surface brightness galaxies. These
statistics restrict the population of Malin 1-like galaxies to <5.5x10^-6
Mpc^-3.Comment: ApJ accepted, 12 page
Privacy-Friendly Mobility Analytics using Aggregate Location Data
Location data can be extremely useful to study commuting patterns and
disruptions, as well as to predict real-time traffic volumes. At the same time,
however, the fine-grained collection of user locations raises serious privacy
concerns, as this can reveal sensitive information about the users, such as,
life style, political and religious inclinations, or even identities. In this
paper, we study the feasibility of crowd-sourced mobility analytics over
aggregate location information: users periodically report their location, using
a privacy-preserving aggregation protocol, so that the server can only recover
aggregates -- i.e., how many, but not which, users are in a region at a given
time. We experiment with real-world mobility datasets obtained from the
Transport For London authority and the San Francisco Cabs network, and present
a novel methodology based on time series modeling that is geared to forecast
traffic volumes in regions of interest and to detect mobility anomalies in
them. In the presence of anomalies, we also make enhanced traffic volume
predictions by feeding our model with additional information from correlated
regions. Finally, we present and evaluate a mobile app prototype, called
Mobility Data Donors (MDD), in terms of computation, communication, and energy
overhead, demonstrating the real-world deployability of our techniques.Comment: Published at ACM SIGSPATIAL 201
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